Naoki grew up watching action movies, idolizing the culture of the mysterious ninja. They were often depicted as the villains; a shadowy league of assassins. He was blind to the morality of their position. Naoki grew an obsession with the ability of a person to become one with shadow. In his pajamas, he would sneak around the house. It was often the more treacherous stunts where he failed and injured himself that drew him further and further into his love of ninjas.

Just a boy, he told his parents he was going out to play. He carried piles of paper out of the house to his parents' confusion. They ignored it as he ran towards the street, pulling a stapler out of his self-made dark red ninja robes. On every empty wall or pole, he posted a big sign offering his services.

Though days passed before anyone approached the house, Naoki knew it would come. An elderly man slowly walked up to the house and knocked on the door. Naoki’s parents turned to shout to their son.

“Is there a ninja here?”

From above the doorway, Naoki descended, fully cloaked. He landed gracefully on the floor and exclaimed, “I AM YOUR NINJA.”

The old man bowed and stated, “My prized sword is missing. I believe it was taken to the temple. Please retrieve it for me.”

Naoki didn’t respond. Instead, he took off running towards the Shaolin temple, excited to have a reason to visit, and more so to be on a mission. The temple was open for anyone to enter only one day a week. This was not that day. Naoki snuck into the back area of the temple grounds, hidden by tall grass. He trudged through as quietly as possible, fully conscious of his ninja status. As he emerged from the thicket, he was greeted by three of the monks, smiling.

The monks beckoned Naoki forward onto the pathway, admiring his robes. They walked ahead, allowing the young man to follow. In the center of the temple, Naoki saw a strange, human-like figure standing stoically, legs and arms together. One hand was raised with two fingers pointing up. Between him and Naoki, an odachi hung in the air. Naoki knew immediately it was the sword he sought.

Naoki broke from the pack and charged up some steps to the center of the Shaolin temple. The monks noticed too late and moved to stop him. He leapt at the sword, but it jerked towards the figure, passing through it and then floating behind it. It was made of pure shadow; a being not of this world. The figure returned to its position, but Naoki had a mission. He pounced for the sword one more time.

This time, he grabbed the sword’s handle. His foot, however, was held by the shadow figure. It was angry now, and dragged Naoki down into the earth. The monks reached through the shadowy form and held Naoki’s hands, trying to save him. As Naoki’s last moment of air came, one of the monks tapped him on the forehead decisively. His spirit rose from his body and the monk guided it into the only object nearby; the odachi.

Naoki’s body survived the passing into another realm and trained in shadow arts for many years. It learned to transform at will, only able to take the form of a praying mantis. After defeating legions of darkness, the body returned to the realm of the living. It was drawn, ever since being separated, to reunite with his spirit. He fought legions of darkness to return, finding that the temple was abandoned. The odachi awaited him at the entryway. Naoki took the handle and the blade glowed a vicious red in response. The fallen ninja was separate, but complete.

Naoki returned home to find the town was empty. He picked up an old, worn piece of paper. His mother had kept the poster that began his journey, which, long ago, adorned the walls of the now desolate town. Naoki shoved it into his robe and began descending through the earth, empty without a new mission. After so much time, just as the poster read, he was still a Ninja4Hire.

 

 

N4H perched atop an ancient temple, listening intently. His target was inside, though he’d have to eliminate the hooded guards in order to gain access without alerting others. He considered entering in mantis form, but expected to be noticed as they were not common in the area. One guard stood ready at the open entryway to the marble temple, another patrolled the perimeter, beneath an extended roof supported by large pillars. N4H was biding his time on the edge of this roof, awaiting the perfect moment and for the sun to fall.

In the back of the temple, while a guard strolled by, Naoki’s odachi, Nakanaka, tapped softly from behind a marble pillar, which drew the hooded figure’s attention. It swiftly reacted to the tapping. Within just a moment, the guard was at the site of the tapping, its back facing away from the temple. Nakanaka rose from the ground with Ninja For Hire below. The nimble assassin wrapped a cloth around the guard’s face to muffle a feeble cry, and pulled them backwards so that his Odachi would rise up through their heart.

Ninja pressed the body through the dirt floor into the realm below, but took the purple, hooded robe for himself. He wore it and patrolled the temple’s exterior, matching with precision the pace and gait of the figure he replaced. After a few cycles, Ninja took a single step differently as he passed by the entryway, subtly alerting the other guard to his presence. He felt the eyes follow him as he continued to move along.

The guard took no chances and moved to strike the imposter down, plunging a knife into the spine of the robe. Within it, however, was simply the air. The guard peered down at the empty robe and started to turn around, recognizing its own demise. Nakanaka was already piercing through the skull of the guard and Naoki stood below in mantis form, thoroughly enjoying outsmarting his enemies. He transformed back before approaching the entryway, hoping to attract whoever the next guard was. There was no next guard there, though.

N4H and Nakanaka silently passed through the dim, sconce-lit temple corridors to find that there were no occupants in any of the rooms. Ninja was surprised, as he was informed by the employer that the temple would be heavily guarded and fully manned. They reached the room where the target was meant to be. A being as old as time itself played with mystic forces within the heart of the temple. Its body was weak so it was constantly laid in a bed, operating with minimal physical movement, often doing so out of body.

When they entered the room, they looked around to see all the guards were killed already, a pile of bodies in purple robes filling the corner. Stepping up to the bed, Ninja For Hire held Nakanaka and harnessed darkness to vanquish the ancient being. He was struck by a memory in that room. Many years prior, he was fulfilling a contract for Beemon to slay a corrupt pastor. Just like that night, there was something else in the room.

“You.” N4H stated.

From the throat of the decrepit humanoid laying in the bed unraveled a freakish, sentient pillow with coldness in its empty eyes.

“You stole my target.” he whined.

Pillowfriend slithered rapidly to exit the room, but was stopped by Nakanaka, which blocked the door, moving along with the pillow creature that was trying to find an opening. Naoki stared at the blank pillow face, trying to figure out what manner of being it was. Pillowfriend sensed that the sword definitely wanted to kill him, and that the Ninja was leaning that way. Defensively, he fluffed to his maximum size, sucking in as much air as possible to fill his pillowcase skin. The force of the expansion blasted Nakanaka out of the room, though Naoki reacted quick enough to narrowly avoid being hit. When he stood back up, Pillowfriend was gone.

Nakanaka must have punctured some part of Pillowfriend, as there was a trail of feathers leading out of the temple. It led them to a point in the forest, but PF was nowhere in sight. A feather at Naoki’s feet was buried in the dirt. The creature had burrowed, tunneling away to avoid the confrontation. Pillowfriend was a silent killer, no match for the soul-blade Nakanaka and its pet body.